Agency Cuts Deliveries To Extend Meals

A month ago a company that delivers free meals to elderly Broward County residents cut back in its number of meals each week, but there have been few complaints.

Human Services Network, a nonprofit company that delivers frozen meals, decreased its deliveries from seven to five meals a week on June 3. It had been spending too much, feeding nearly two times the number of people originally included in its budget, said Jeffrey Wachs, president of the company.

``Right now we have enough money to keep approximately 150 people on the seven-day program, if it is a real emergency for them, but we`ve only received about 10 calls from people inquiring about seven-day delivery,`` he said.

The Meals on Wheels program is paid for with federal and state money under the Elderly Americans Act, through the county`s Area Agency on Aging.

Area agency director Candy Rechtschaffer said that she is working hard to get money shifted from another program in order to bring back the seven-meal program.

``Nutrition moneys are dispersed to congregate meals and home deliveries,`` she said. ``If we could mix the money for both of them, we`d have no problem. But the government only allows us to mix 15 percent.``

Rechtschaffer said that Broward has seen a big change in its elderly population, moving away from the need for congregate meals to home-delivered food.

``There are a lot of people now who qualify for home-delivered food,`` she said. ``That is, they are more than 60 years old, home-bound and unable to prepare their own meals or unable to afford food.``

As a result, there are about 45 sites in the county that serve hot meals and have plenty of openings for needy recipients. But the Meals on Wheels program suffers from lack of funds.

Rechtschaffer said she has asked the state to allow her to transfer an additional 15 percent of the funds allotted to congregate meals to the Meals on Wheels program.

``If we could make that move, we could reinstate seven meals,`` she said. ``We have support from congressmen but are still waiting to hear from the state.``

Cutting back to a five-day program has permitted the agency to supply food to all 200 people on its waiting list, boosting the number of recipients to about 2,000. Caterers and an average of about 225 volunteers deliver the meals once a week to the county`s elderly.

``I expected to hear a lot of complaints from recipients about the cutbacks,`` said George Loose, a volunteer and retired Lutheran minister. ``But instead, most said that they would make do if it meant that more people could be helped.``